


Split Focus

by UnrealRomance



Series: Impressions and Deductions [6]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnrealRomance/pseuds/UnrealRomance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thane P.O.V.</p>
<p>Grunt's Loyalty mission from Thane's Perspective though I skip past the combat and whatnot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Split Focus

Shepard asked this time.

Instead of merely assigning roles or informing me that I had a place in her squad, she came to Life Support and _asked_.

I was in the midst of modding my sniper rifle when she walked in...

" _Thane?"_ _She likes to avoid surprising anyone on the ship, unnecessary as her caution may be it speaks of underlying respect for the people on her crew. She speaks softly when she calls my name, from the doorway._

" _Commander." I acknowledge her, and she enters._

" _I was wondering if you wouldn't mind coming to Tuchanka with me." She leans against the wall and sighs with some measure of relief. Though I can't place where the relief is coming from. "We're going to see if there's something wrong with Grunt, and I'm told that...an old friend is in charge down there."_

_I tilt my head and put down the rifle. "You would like me to come to Tuchanka."_

_She sighs. "It isn't exactly a mission, so I figured-"_

" _Why did you think to invite me?" I peer up at her face, hands cupping before me. "If it is an old friend, Tali or Garrus would be the logical options."_

_She chews her bottom lip. Common human habit, belying anxiety or some kind of tension. "I'm taking them too."_

I agreed simply because I wanted to see what she needed me for. Or what she'd ask of me once we were off the ship. She has asked others off the ship simply to speak out of range of the Ships monitoring systems before.

Now she is walking up to the Urdnot Clan Leader and he is greeting her with...boisterous enthusiasm.

"Shepard! My friend." He claps her on the shoulders and shakes her a bit. "Just as small and squishy as I remember, what a shame."

She smacks his hands off and cross her arms, in a faux huff. "Wrex, just as old and crusty as _I_ remember."

He laughs a great rumble and turns to walk back up to his throne, taking a seat and waving her up past our previous obstacle.

Shepard shoots the angry Krogan to our right a quelling look and to my great surprise, there is a flicker of something like trepidation in his eyes.

I follow after Grunt and Tali as Shepard and Garrus exchange greetings and anecdotes about their lives while apart.

"So, you went home and took over." Shepard laughs and punches the great red Krogan in the shoulder. "Shoulda guessed. You always had it in you, Wrex."

"I know you thought so." He shrugs, a wealth of gratitude hidden within his expression. "Just sort of fell into it."

' _They believe in themselves only because she does.'_ Shepard is more than a catalyst for great deeds to be done, it seems. In some cases, she seems to be the fuel.

"You shoulda seen what Garrus got himself into." She grins at the Turian and laughs when he shoots her a look. "What? You don't think Wrex'd get a kick out of knowing you started a war? All by your lonesome?"

"A war?" Wrex huffs. "Why didn't you _call_ me." Less an assurance of help and more a lament of a battle past that he could no longer be a part of.

"I was in sort of a haze at the time." Garrus sighed. "And you had your own life."

"We would have come." Tali crosses her arms. "We would have come through waves of enemies for you."

The Turian droops a bit in the shoulders and nods. "I know."

"Well, aside from catching up- why'd you come to see me?" Wrex asks, turning to Shepard for answers. "It's always something with you."

"Grunt." She turns and gestures the young Krogan forward. "He was cooked up in a lab, grown in a tank, and when I released him- well, he was as aggressive as any Krogan, but now it's affecting him more strongly and he can't stop it."

"Cooked up in a lab, huh?" Wrex stands and walks over to eye Grunt. "Haven't been through the Rite yet, then."

"The Rite?" Shepard asks.

"The Rite of Passage." Wrex rumbles in his throat and paces as he speaks. "Something that helps a young Krogan learn to harness his baser urges."

"What would Grunt have to do?"

It seems that question is the last straw for the angry Krogan who tried to bar our path before.

I move into place at Shepard's left, and Garrus takes his place at her right. We are not in front of her, not protecting, behind- backing up.

He stomps up to face her, "This _thing_ is not Krogan! It cannot be allowed the rights of a clan member!"

Shepard steps forward into the Krogan's body space, staring into one of his large eyes as she speaks. "His name is Grunt. Call him -a Thing- again, and I'll shoot you." She steps back and puts a hand on the assault rifle on her back, a warning.

"And I'll let her, Uvenk." Wrex warns the Krogan. "There aren't enough of us around to be picky about where we come from. And just look at him." Wrex walks over to grasp Grunt's shoulder. "I was at least two inches or so shorter and less wide than he is when I had my Rite. He's fuller, stronger, healthier. Look at his skin. Look at his eyes."

"He's immune to the Genophage, too." Shepard tells Wrex with a nod. "Okeer. Know that name?"

"Heh." Wrex releases Grunt and paces once again. "Brutal scientist. He dead?"

"Killed himself, to save Grunt." She points behind her with her thumb at Grunt. "Said he was 'The Future' of the Krogan species."

"This cannot be allowed to happen, Wrex!" Uvenk snarls at him.

"The Shaman will decide whether it happens or not, as is his right." Wrex growls back. "Take the boy to the Shaman."

"Am with Commander Shepard, would advise you to step back." Mordin's voice cuts through the din.

Wrex tilts his head as Shepard spins on her heel and gapes. "Was that a _Salarian_ voice, I heard?"

"One of mine." She rushes past the small crowd gathered around the entrance to the area. Garrus and I follow, Tali and Grunt trailing at the back. "Mordin? What happened?"

When we get through the crowd, we see the Salarian more agitated than he's been before. He is a quick-minded and quick-spoken individual, but he almost seems to be buzzing with unspent energy.

"Intelligence came through, old student- held prisoner nearby." Mordin takes a deep breath. "Request that we go after him."

Shepard's shoulders draw back. "Garrus?"

"I can handle it." He nods.

She glances behind him. "Take Tali."

"Thane and Grunt going to be enough for whatever a Krogan considers a Rite of Passage?" He asks, sub-harmonics communicating reluctance.

"Thane is more dangerous than he looks, remember?" She shrugs. "And I'm not exactly unacquainted with danger and death."

"Thank you, Shepard." Mordin bows his head in a show of deference, and follows Garrus as he walks back toward Wrex to explain the situation.

I watch them go, but turn to Shepard after they reach the Clan Leader. "Is it wise?"

"What?" She grins. "Sending a Salarian into Krogan territory with a Turian and a Quarian backing him up?"

I hum, surprised by the forethought. I shouldn't be. "What will happen if the Urdnot Clan takes offense to this action?"

She shrugs and crosses her arms. "Wrex is reasonable, if they need to be taken down, he'll allow it. If they're allies, he'd help me negotiate. I trust Garrus to remember that." Still, her expression is troubled as she turns and leads the way toward a nearby structure. "We're the ones going up against the unknown."

' _Ah. That is why she did not take charge of Mordin's mission.'_ Grunt respects Shepard but not anyone else, not a significant amount, at the very least. _'Garrus and Tali work well together, they will watch after one another. The situation is somewhat familiar to them in some way- Shepard trusts their competence.'_ But Grunt may not have listened to Garrus, or even myself- though he does seem to admire what he can perceive of my deadliness.

Such an odd thing, to be admired for being a killer.

...

Garrus came back with Tali and Mordin just after the celebration for Grunt's Maw kill.

They joined in the festivities with abandon, which I take to mean something must have happened. Garrus seeks out Shepard and debriefs her as soon as he catches sight of her.

Her expression changes over the course of the story from calm acceptance, to horrified anger, then to compassion, then back to calm acceptance.

Tali is drinking with Wrex, curled up next to him on a stone bench and chirping answers to his questions about the Flotilla.

Grunt is excited at the prospect of being a full clan member to someone Shepard considers her equal. And she does. It is in her every word spoken to Wrex, her every argument and teasing probe. They are more than friends, comrades or sparring partners, they are family a universe apart.

Garrus and Tali are much the same, and when the four are together, there is an unquestionable gravity to them. They belong together.

Shepard finds me on the edge of the camp, to my surprise. She seemed to be enjoying the festivities, though she hasn't drunk enough to intoxicate herself.

"So. What do you think?" She settles on the bench next to me, leaving room between us but turned toward me.

"About?" I know she cannot see where my eyes are in this darkness, it is difficult for humans to see my eyes even in the light. I take the opportunity to read her expressions much more closely than I would at another time.

She bites her lip. "Tuchanka, Wrex, the Rite...all of it?"

"Tuchanka is barren and nearly deserted, it seems- though the people are more than lively enough to make up for it." I begin, speaking slowly. "The Urdnot Clan Leader seems a capable and strong individual, though you'd know more of his qualifications than I." A small smile lifts the side of my mouth. "As for the Rite, I believe young Grunt will remember it for the rest of his life."

"Well, that was sparse and detached." She sighs. "What about your arm?"

Both sets of my eyelids blink. "I am fine, Shepard."

She groans and flops back onto the bench, folding her hands on top of her stomach and crossing her legs, extending them until they nearly touch me. "You're one of those, I knew it."

The exasperation is amusing, though I am unsure what she means. "One of what?"

"One of those-" She begins to illustrate with her hands. "'I'll finish the mission without telling anyone I'm injured because they'd just worry and I'm not hurt enough to slow them down'- types."

I blink in surprise, yet again. "Ah."

"That isn't gonna fly, Thane." She throws herself into a sitting position, the movement smooth but violent. Communicating frustration. "I've given you time to get used to working in a team, but I can't always expect people to adapt to that way of life I guess..." She sighs. "Especially not someone like you, virtually always working alone."

"It was a mild burn, Shepard." I hold up my left arm to show her the flesh where my sleeve was burned away. Medi-gel took care of most of the problem. "Nothing to worry about."

"It is. It really is." She sighs again, more deeply this time, and slides over next to me to take my arm.

My knee-jerk reaction is to step away, or at the very least, take my arm back. I fight it down and allow her to examine my arm scales. Her touch is soft, but not hesitant. Grip firm around my wrist.

"You get injured, I should know. I'm the Commander, so I'm in charge- I should know exactly how many injuries my people have and how many more they can take before I have to do something about it." Her lips are pressed together in something like distaste or annoyance. "Even more so with you, whether you could finish the mission or not- I don't want to set you back."

Ah. My shoulders relax from their tensed posture enough to be a relief. "My illness is not-"

"Not yet debilitating, I know you've spun me the spiel." She _is_ irritated. "I don't want to use you and discard you, Thane. You're just as important to me as the rest of my squad. Even if your condition can't be cured, I don't want to accelerate it if I can help it."

The revelation is a bit staggering. My vision clears and the colors around me are much more vibrant than before. The red of her hair glints in the flickering firelight of the torches nearby.

I slip back into the colorless void as quickly as I left, avoiding the confused tangle of emotion in my chest. "I understand. I will inform you if I am injured in the future."

She snorts and shakes her head at me.

' _Amused by my speech again or something else?'_

"Thanks." She chuckles and stands, walking back toward the party, tossing me a look as she goes. "You coming?"


End file.
